1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a system and method for analyzing a customer load and/or generation profile (such as electrical, gas or water load profiles), and more particularly to a system and method for disaggregating the customer load and/or generation profile, thereby determining the one or more devices that contribute to the customer load and/or generation profile.
2. Related Art
Customers may have one or more appliances that draw energy (such as electricity or gas) or water from a central utility. The draw on the energy or water is sensed by a meter or other type of sensor that indicates the customer load profile (such as the electricity, natural gas, or water loads that the customer draws).
One type of meter is called a Smart Meter, which generally refers to a type of advanced meter (such as an electrical meter) that identifies consumption in more detail than a conventional meter. Specifically, the Smart Meter may sense the customer load profile in real-time or near real-time, and record the customer load profile. The customer load profile is an aggregation of the load drawn for the various appliances at the customer premises. The Smart Meter may communicate this customer load profile via a network back to the local utility for monitoring and billing purposes (telemetering).
Though devices such as the Smart Meter provide real-time load information, customers may still wish to learn the break-down (or disaggregation) of the amount of load drawn for the various devices or appliances at the customer premises. In order to obtain this information, the customer typically configures additional sensors to sense the load drawn. For example, if a customer wishes to identify the electrical load drawn by a specific appliance (such as a heater), the customer may install a sensor dedicated to sensing the current drawn by the specific appliance. However, generating this break-down of the amount of load drawn can be inconvenient for the customer. Thus, there is a need to more easily determine the amount of load drawn by the various appliances at the customer premises.